“Next week, Facebook will start delivering video ads on apps that run on set-top boxes like Apple TV and Roku through the company’s ad network,” Kurt Wagner and Peter Kafka report for Recode. “Facebook is partnering with two publishers, A+E and Tubi TV, and will deliver ads to people who watch videos on those apps, on actual television sets.”

“Facebook says this is the beginning of a test, and that it hasn’t yet worked out many details, like ad formats and lengths,” Wagner and Kafka report. “Video apps on set-top boxes often include advertising, but Facebook’s experiment brings the promise of much more targeted ads than most apps have used in the past. That’s because Facebook can use the same targeting data that powers the rest of its advertising network to the set-top boxes, even though those apps aren’t directly connected to Facebook.”

“Using IP addresses, Facebook will be able to tell that the Apple TV in your basement is used by the same person — or at least the same family — that logs into Facebook accounts at the same place, and will use that data to deliver relevant ads,” Wagner and Kafka report. “One likely issue Facebook will have to resolve before its video plans can really get going: The reaction from set-top box makers, who likely have their own ideas about how advertising will work on their hardware. Facebook is trying to work with those makers, including Apple, but how this ends up being divided longterm will be interesting to watch.”

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10 Comments

No TV ads! Where can we run and hide from the tidal wave of invasive and pervasive ads in the quest for greedy profits? Most of which aren’t even something we’re interested in. (And I used to work on commercials.)

I bought an Apple TV to AVOID advertising which I consider to be from the pit of Hell- a big statement for an agnostic. I will gladly pay more to avoid ads of any kind.

I also do not do Facebook and have no intention of ever opening an account. Mark Zuckerberg can get used to being topped out. Intrusive ads are the surest way to get me to drop an app or turn off a website.